The Cruisin' Experience...

         Ok so here I am finally posting my first of several cruise blogs...  This last week Mick and I, Lucy, Esther, and Taylah went on a seven day cruise with Mick's parents and two of Mick's brothers and their wives and kids...  It was a big, super-duper Travis holiday extravaganza... Mick and I still think we all should have had matching t-shirts or something...  (I guess this is something us "americans" do)
         So the day before the cruise we were madly packing trying to make sure we had everything we would need for our week long party...  Mick and I ended up staying up way too late trying to get all the loose ends tied before bed.  The next morning we had to wake up at 4:30 am to make it out to get Mick's parents on time and then up to Brisby to get on the boat.  Mick and I were exhausted but very excited all the same.

Getting ready to get on the boat.

A view of one of the top decks

        Because we got to the boat so early we were able to be some of the first passengers on board which was nice...
So this being my very first cruise experience ever I have made a few interesting observations:
1.  Holy Cow being on a boat, walking on a boat... trying to dance on a boat... take a shower on a boat is a very wobbly experience!  We had abnormally rough seas and sometimes we would go up to the upper decks and look down at the water and see these gigantic waves crashing into the boat... and boy you certainly do feel them!!!  There was more than one commical time when I would simply be trying to walk down the hall and end up walking diagonally and almost falling over!  Or even just trying to walk across our little cabin...  you kind of just felt like a drunk trying to walk around all the time.
2.  With all of that rocking... yeah... you do get sea sick.  I mean don't get me wrong... this was such a fun experience... but yes... I did get sick and had a particularly bad night but by the next morning felt a ton better... After that, the nausea came every now and then as the rocking just never stops... but we all had brought a lot of medication to help combat the sea sickness... Including ground ginger that I would sprinkle into my drinking water... hahah... No, not yummy... but better than getting sick.

Waiting to get off the boat at one of the ports... feeling a bit sea sick.

3.  On a cruise you eat A LOT.  The cool part about eating on a cruise is that there were two places we could choose to go to and eat and it was completly free.... well... you know, already covered in our passenger expence.  One was the upstairs "Lido Buffet" and the other was the more elegant Palm Court Restraunt.  The kids loved the buffet as they could line up and grab all kinds of yummy food... and as much as they wanted too.  And the adults certainly prefered going to the more relaxed environment (and very good food) of the restruant.  Toward the end of the cruise we pretty much were eating at the Palm Court restraunt for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
         At the restraunt since it was already paid for etc we could order anything and as much as we wanted... two appetizers, a salad, a main meal, soup... and as Wendy taught us: two desserts!  It was also the perfect situation to let the kids try out some new foods and practice ordering in a nice restraunt.  It is funny though... with all of this food... Mick and I found that by the end of the seven days we were freaking SICK AND TIRED of eating!  We wanted to go home and not eat for a loooong time... hahaha!  Also, I found that I needed to be very vigillant about what and how much I ate so I didn't get sick again!  It is a difficult balance...





Chocolate walnut pie with carmel drizzle...

Taylah eating some eggs for breaky...

Having some lunch

Fish dish...

The girls scarfing down their grub

Mmmmm!  See!  Mick ordered two desserts... yum!

Craziness outside the Palm Court before lunch...

The adult kids enjoying a quiet dinner without our kids!  Yay!

4.  Ok so my last observation about cruising is... I now get the joke when someone says, "hello I will be your cruise director for the evening" because the cruise director's job is pretty much making sure that life is a non-stop party...  Especially in the evenings we could go out wandering all over the ship from one party to the next... whether it was dancing up in the dome, or doing Kareoke down in one of the bars, or watching a performance in the show lounge, or just simply kicking back and relaxing....

       All in all it was so much fun and I am so happy Mick and I and three of our girls got to go.  I have so many favorite moments from the trip that I will share in more detail in my next few blogs!